Turkey detains 100 Daesh suspects

ISTANBUL — Turkish police have detained at least 100 people suspected of links to Daesh, Turkey’s official news agency said Friday.

Istanbul police conducted simultaneous operations at multiple districts to detain 82 foreigners, Anadolu Agency reported. The suspects had allegedly been active in conflict zones with Daesh and planned on going to Syria.

Separately, Anadolu said 11 Syrian nationals were detained in the southern province of Adana for alleged links to Daesh. Seven others, whose nationalities weren’t revealed, were detained in western Izmir province. The nationalities of the 82 foreigners detained in Istanbul also weren’t disclosed.

The operations are part of Turkey’s ramped up effort to clamp down on Daesh. Police detained more than 170 Daesh suspects in a sweep in the capital, Ankara, on Thursday.

The Istanbul detentions were part of operations to protect Friday commemorations of the 79th anniversary of founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s death as well as securing an Istanbul marathon scheduled for Sunday, according to the private Dogan news agency.

Turkey has suffered a series of bloody attacks blamed on Daesh militants, including a New Year’s attack at an Istanbul nightclub by a gunman that killed 39 people.